Christ is Risen!
We have now been celebrating our
Lord’s victory over death for two weeks.
We will continue to do so for a few more weeks, saying “Christ is Risen”
many times. But we must not let our
celebration of Pascha stop there. For we want to live the new life that the
Lord has brought to the world; we want to participate in His victory over sin,
death, and all that separates us from life eternal. And we can learn an important lesson in how
to do that from those who were at the empty tomb on Easter morning as the first
witnesses of the resurrection to hear the word of the angel: “He is Risen. He is not here…Go tell His disciples—and
Peter—that He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He
said to you.”
These first witnesses of our
salvation were women who went to the tomb with oil and spices to anoint the
dead body of Jesus Christ. They obviously
did not expect the tomb to be empty. They
were surely heart-broken, afraid, and terribly disappointed that their Lord had
been killed. But they had the strength
to offer Him one last act of love: to
anoint His body properly for burial. Just
imagine the risks that they took, publically identifying themselves with the
Lord at His crucifixion and then going to the tomb of One executed as a traitor
in the wee hours of Sunday morning. With
a courage born of love, they must have put aside obvious concerns about their personal
safely. And as they did so, these women-- Mary the Theotokos, Mary Magdalen,
two other Mary’s, Johanna, Salome, Martha, Susanna and others whose names we do
not know-- received the greatest news in
the universe, the resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, the angelic proclamation of Pascha came
first to the Theotokos, even as she was the first to hear from the Archangel
the good news of the Incarnation.
As you will remember, the male
disciples did not believe their testimony at first, even as St. Joseph the
Betrothed was at first skeptical of the circumstances of the Lord’s virgin
conception. But with the balance between man and woman that we see throughout
the unfolding of our salvation, we remember along with these blessed women two
men: Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus, prominent Jewish leaders who were also secret followers of Jesus
Christ. This Joseph risked his position
and possibly his life by asking Pilate for the Savior’s body, even as Joseph
the Betrothed had surely risked his life during the flight to Egypt to escape the
persecution of the wicked King Herod. Nicodemus, who had understood the Lord so poorly
in a conversation recorded near the beginning of St. John’s gospel, came to
faith and joined Joseph of Arimathea in wrapping the Lord in linen with spices
and placing Him in a tomb.
Like the myrrh-bearing women, these
men must have been terribly sad and afraid.
Their hopes had been cruelly crushed; their world turned upside down. Not only had their Lord died, He was the
victim of public rejection, humiliation, and capital punishment. Nonetheless, these women and men did what had
to be done, despite the risk to themselves from the authorities and their own
pain. They served their Christ in the
only way still available to them by caring for His body.
Before Jesus Christ’s death, He
washed the feet of His disciples in order to show them what it meant to serve
in humility as He did. The myrrh-bearers
were not present that evening, but they followed the Lord’s example of service
better than anyone else. Perhaps they were not there because they had already
learned the centrality of humble service in how they cared for and supported
the Lord throughout His ministry. Regardless,
their selfless devotion to Christ put them in the place where they would be the
first to receive the good news of the resurrection, the first to share in the
joy of Pascha. We have a lot to learn
from them, as well as from Joseph and Nicodemus. For if we want to live the new life of our
Lord’s victory over death and corruption in all its forms, we must do as they
did by serving our Lord in humility out love, despite the cost.
We have no lack of opportunities to
serve Christ, in His Body, the Church, whether by visiting the sick, giving of
our time and other resources to the poor, providing someone without
transportation a ride to church, maintaining our building and grounds, cleaning
and beautifying the church temple, teaching Sunday School, chanting, hosting
coffee hour, baking holy bread, serving on the parish council or at the altar,
reading the epistle in liturgy, inviting others to visit our services, or
otherwise doing what needs to be done for the flourishing of our parish. These things may seem small, but they make a
huge difference. If we are not faithful
in small tasks, how can we hope to be faithful in large ones? Out of love for Christ, let us all answer the
call to serve Him as we are needed in His Body, the Church.
We are also reminded of the
importance of humble service by today’s passages from Acts in which the first
deacons were ordained to oversee the distribution of bread to the needy widows
who were supported by the Christian community.
The word deacon means “servant,” and we read that, after the deacons
began their ministry, “the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples
multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient
to the faith.” Perhaps the passage reads
that way because humble service is the very backbone of the Church, an
essential part of our faithfulness and growth as Christ’s Body.
Of
course, we do not encounter the Lord only in the visible boundaries of the Church. For every human being is an icon of Christ, especially
the poor, needy, and miserable. In that
we care for the least of these in society, for prisoners or refugees or the
lonely or mentally ill, we care for Him.
In that we neglect them, we neglect Him.
The myrrh-bearers did not disregard Christ’s body in the tomb, and
neither should we disregard the Lord’s body hungry, sick, poorly clothed,
abused, or otherwise suffering in our world.
It is not hard to find the Lord in people we encounter every day who
need our service and attention. That is why we should all bring our Lenten
collections for “Food for Hungry People” to church as soon as we can. And food,
clothing, and other items brought to church will always be put to good use by
those who need them, regardless of the season of the year.
On this Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, it is
clear that holiness is not a matter of earthly power or prestige. Those righteous women did not count for much
at all in their time and place; even the male disciples disregarded their
preaching of the resurrection. The new
day of God’s reign ushered in by Pascha is a passing over from spiritual blindness,
self-centeredness, and domination to love, selfless service, and true humility before
God and all who bear His image and likeness. Here we encounter the same apparent weakness manifest
in our Lord’s cross, which ultimately destroyed the corrupt orders of our distorted
world through the glory of the empty tomb. If we want to participate even now in that glory,
if we want to embrace a power beyond the powers of this age, we must follow the
example of those courageous and loving women and men who risked their lives out
of love for our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. No, a life of courageous love for our Savior is
not easy, but it is the only path that we lead us to behold, and even to participate
personally in, the good news of His resurrection on the third day, which is ultimately
what this blessed season is all about.
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